83
David Clarke (1920–2005)
Estimate:
€400 - €600
Sold
€380
Timed Auction
On-Line Timed Art Auction
ARTIST
David Clarke (1920–2005)
Size
16.50 by 19.75in. (41.9 by 50.2cm)
Description
Title: STILL LIFE WITH CANDLE, 1949
Note: David Clarke, the youngest son of Harry and Margaret Clarke, was born one hundred years ago this year, in August 1920. In 1939, in preparation for becoming a designer at his late father's stained glass studios, he enrolled at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA). However, there he discovered that he preferred painting to designing windows. Though he did join the studios, he was restless and left when WWII ended, to work as a set designer for a theatre company in England. In 1948, still restless, he went to Madrid with no Spanish and little money, inspired by the poetry of Federico García Lorca. Irish nuns found the young artist a welcoming family with a spare room, where he hung his easel on the back of the door and happily painted all things Spanish. When lack of money obliged him to return home, he had enough paintings for his first solo exhibition, held in November 1949 at the Harry Clarke Studios, 6/7 North Frederick Street; Still Life with Candle was one of the exhibits.For many years, David attempted to juggle the demands of working at the studios with being a painter, until a severe decline in orders for stained glass allowed him, gratefully, to close the firm in 1973. From then until his death in 2005, it was his joy to paint every day.
Note: David Clarke, the youngest son of Harry and Margaret Clarke, was born one hundred years ago this year, in August 1920. In 1939, in preparation for becoming a designer at his late father's stained glass studios, he enrolled at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (DMSA). However, there he discovered that he preferred painting to designing windows. Though he did join the studios, he was restless and left when WWII ended, to work as a set designer for a theatre company in England. In 1948, still restless, he went to Madrid with no Spanish and little money, inspired by the poetry of Federico García Lorca. Irish nuns found the young artist a welcoming family with a spare room, where he hung his easel on the back of the door and happily painted all things Spanish. When lack of money obliged him to return home, he had enough paintings for his first solo exhibition, held in November 1949 at the Harry Clarke Studios, 6/7 North Frederick Street; Still Life with Candle was one of the exhibits.For many years, David attempted to juggle the demands of working at the studios with being a painter, until a severe decline in orders for stained glass allowed him, gratefully, to close the firm in 1973. From then until his death in 2005, it was his joy to paint every day.
Medium
gouache
Signature
signed and dated lower right
Provenance
Family of the artist
Exhibited
'David Clarke', Harry Clarke Studios, 6/7 North Frederick Street, Dublin, November, 1949
